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Legal advice for parents of children with Special Educational Needs or a Disability

Legal advice for parents of children with Special Educational Needs or a Disability.

We are not accepting new enquiries at the moment but will reopen at the end of January 2025. Please revisit this page at that time to access the enquiry form.

We can advise in relation to all areas of Special Educational Needs, including;

  • Support at school to meet a child’s Special Educational Needs
  • Obtaining an Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment
  • The content of an EHC Plan and choosing a school
  • Appeals to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) in relation to all aspects of an EHC Plan, including choice of school
  • Delays in obtaining an assessment or the provision within a child’s EHCP
  • Advice and support to prepare a legal challenge if your child is without education or school transport.

You will receive any urgent advice on the day of the appointment, in some cases you will receive a detailed letter of advice.

If you are appealing to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal you may be entitled to free legal advice depending on your financial circumstances. You can check your entitlement via the gov.uk website.  We are seeing an increasing number of clients who did not know they were entitled to free legal advice.  We have many more enquiries than we can assist with, so we ask that you please check your eligibility for free legal advice before accepting an appointment with us.  

Our students help us to maintain SENDecisions, which is a very useful tool to support you in understanding the law.

You may want to look at the following websites, which can provide very useful information:

We provide four different types of support:

Advice and detailed letter of advice

This is dependent on capacity.  You will receive any urgent advice on the day. You will also receive a detailed letter of advice.

Oral advice

Advice is provided on the day and may be confirmed in a summary email.

SEN appeals service

Support and assistance with appealing to the SEND Tribunal.

Pre-action assistance

Advice about prospects of a legal challenge relating to your child’s education or social care support and, in certain circumstances, writing a letter to the local authority on your behalf.

Further information

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